Amos Omore and livestock on a dairy farm in Ubiri village, Lushoto, Tanzania (photo credit: ILRI/Nils Teufel).

This article is written by Mercy Becon, communications officer for ILRI in Tanzania.

Eight staff from Tanzania’s Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development are undergoing a 14-month training and planning program assisted by experts from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Amos Omore, ILRI’s country representative, lauded the project and the contribution it will bring to the livestock sector: ‘This is the first time the livestock sector will benefit from a quantitative sector analysis of this kind, thus providing more credible bases for investments. Tanzania’s livestock sector is currently dominated by the traditional and mostly pre-commercial production. This needs to change towards more commercialization’.

On what to expect from the master plan, Omore added: ‘The Tanzanian Livestock Master Plan should provide pathways for livestock sub-sectors where investments for commercialization would provide the greatest returns serving the country’s national goals of reducing poverty, improving food security and increasing the country’s earnings from exports.

‘Evidence generated by the livestock master plan should support efforts by Tanzanian institutions and ILRI to transform the country’s smallholder dairy value chains in inclusive ways, through such programs as the “Maziwa Zaidi“, a national initiative to have more milk in Tanzania. “Maziwa Zaidi” is supported on the research side by the ILRI-led the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish.

The Tanzanian government officials are being trained in using a ‘Livestock Sector Investment and Policy Toolkit’. The results of using the toolkit will be used to build herd and sector models for a 15-year ‘Livestock Sector Analysis’ and a 5-year ‘Livestock Master Plan’ for Tanzania.

Participants of the Tanzanian Livestock Master Plan workshop, including Catherine Joseph (front row, second from right), director of policy and planning in the Tanzanian Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries, who represented the permanent secretary at the opening of the workshop (photo credit: ILRI/Mercy Becon).

The training started on 17 Nov 2015, with Catherine Joseph, director of policy and planning in the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development and representing the permanent secretary in the ministry, lauding the syllabus and saying she is looking forward to see the results of the training. The country’s livestock master plan, she said, will identify high-priority livestock investment interventions for the government, donor agencies, the private sector and other development stakeholders. She further said the plan will help Tanzania reduce poverty and improve food security in the country while also significantly increasing the country’s earnings from exports of livestock and livestock products.

At the opening of this training and planning program, Barry Shapiro, ILRI’s senior livestock development advisor leading the livestock master plan project, thanked the director of policy and planning in the Tanzania Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development for the ministry’s ownership of this work, exemplified by the government assigning eight officials to attend the one-year full-time training and planning program.

Shapiro briefed the participants and guests on the origin of the toolkit and where it has been used. ‘Under the auspices of AU-IBAR’, Shapiro said, ‘the toolkit was developed by livestock experts at the French agricultural research and international cooperation organization (CIRAD), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Bank. It has been applied in Mali and Zambia, with financial and technical support from the World Bank, and in Ethiopia by ILRI, with financial support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The ILRI staff members and livestock specialists experienced with the toolkit from Ethiopia who are delivering the training are Getachew Gebru, Solomon Desta, Asfaw Negassa and Kidus Nigussie.

Shapiro also shared his insights as to how development of the Ethiopia Livestock Master Plan should help the exercise in Tanzania:

‘To realize the economic potential of livestock, the government of Tanzania has launched the Tanzanian Livestock Modernization Initiative to raise the level of government and donor support and private investment in the sector (TLMI concept note 2015 and TLMI Scoping Study 2015). The first step was to hold a TLMI workshop for key policymakers and stakeholders to identify the key policy issues that need to be resolved to modernize the sector.

‘The analysis of potential investments now being undertaken for development of Tanzania’s Livestock Master Plan will help identify high-priority interventions and also provide the evidence needed to increase both public and private investments in the livestock sector.’

The 14-month training program will be launched on 10 Dec 2015, after the newly elected president of Tanzania appoints his new cabinet.

ILRI is leading several projects in the country, including the MoreMilkiT project which is implemented by Tanzania Dairy Board, Faida MaLi and Heifer International with funds from Irish Aid. The project works with farmers in Morogoro and Tanga to pilot approaches to increase their use of inputs and services to improve milk production and marketing to meet rising demand for milk and dairy products. Information on other ILRI-led initiatives in Tanzania can be accessed here: www.ilri.org/Tanzania